Remembering the hungry and homeless

Morrisville State and Cazenovia College students and faculty recently had the opportunity to learn first-hand what it is like to be homeless.

Mike Jaquays

College is a great place for hands-on learning about a plethora of subject matter.
On the evening of Nov. 17 at Morrisville State and Cazenovia Colleges, students and faculty got to learn first-hand what it is like to be homeless and living outside in the cold and wet weather. Those brave volunteers spent the night in makeshift shelters of cardboard and plastic in honor of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week running from Nov. 14-20.
“I think we all kind of wanted to know what it was like to be homeless,” said Morrisville freshman Dave Swanberg of Waterville.
Joined by fellow students, their architecture class Associate Professor Anne Englot and her husband Peter, and Community Action Partnership Nutrition Outreach Education Program Coordinator Jodee Osborne, Swanberg spent the night on the steps of Hamilton Hall in the shelter he constructed as a class project.
While trying to stay warm from the cold, damp night, he journaled his feelings of empathy for the people – many of whom are right nearby in Madison County – who are homeless and living that way every night.
“We are out here because we want to try to bring out awareness of homelessness,” Anne Englot explained. “We don’t want those people to be forgotten, and I think the students all did a great job in making their shelters in an effort to remember them and feel some of what they go through.”
“People don’t think we have that here in Madison County,” Osborne added. “We do have homeless people here, whether they are ’sofa surfers’ traveling from friend to friend to stay or people living in their cars. I think doing this with students gives the next generation the chance to see this for themselves.”
For more information on any Community Action Partnership program for the needy, call the Morrisville office at 684-3144 or the Canastota office at 697-3588.